Deathly Severity
by MISS MANA ELLE
Summary: To come, a false accusation on the most unsuspecting person will land them in a very dangerous position, with help from someone no one suspected...trouble, romance, sarcasm, deaths, surprises, and what else? Possibly the end of what everyone's ever known.


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deathly severity

one; broken

The sunshine shone down more brightly than ever, lighting everyone at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's life. Things were going great. It was about March in the Sixth year of Harry Potter's life at Hogwarts, and he was perfectly fine. Things had gone smoothly since last year at Christmas, when Voldemort had made a show in school. Of course, Harry had managed to evade death. 

Harry was captain of the Quidditch team, although only in his sixth year, and doing well in classes, as well as working on Best Dueler for Dueling club and being a prefect. It was the natural good life for the most popular boy around the Wizarding World. Not to mention his girlfriend, Cho Chang, was the prettiest girl in school.

What could possibly go wrong...?

***

"Potter, get down here right this instant!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang after him while he was high in the air on his broom. He came down with a smirk on his handsome sixteen-year old face, brushing bangs out of his eyes. 

"Yes, Professor?" 

"Can you explain why you're not practicing Quidditch? And instead seeing who can turn over the most times without falling off of their broom?" Harry tried not to laugh before he shook his head.

"No logical explanation, sorry. We'll get to practicing right away, Professor." McGonagall gave him a slight smile and a nod before she walked away. "All right, now, guys, we gotta get goin' on this Quidditch stuff." He threw his team into a few new plays before the sun began to set and they all decided they were hungry. Harry went and sat in the bleachers, watching the sun set as well as the clouds and stars.

"You know you're missing dinner, right?" Her voice made him smile as he turned to face her. She smiled a sweet smile and crawled over the back of his chair and into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"It's worth it."

"Aw, but we're having turkey for dinner, baby," Cho whined with a smile. He kissed her forehead gently before he spoke.

"I'd give every dinner all year to sit out here and watch this with you." Cho laughed lightly.

"So would I."

***

Hermione scribbled down some more notes for her Transfiguration essay, flipping a page in her book. She looked up as Ginny Weasley bounced in and threw herself down in the chair across from Hermione. 

"Hi!" Hermione gave her a weird look.

"What're you so happy about?"

"I heard that Seamus is going to be dumping Parvati! And that means that Seamus will be free! You know he's a cutie, right?" Ginny grinned. "I'm kidding, Hermione!" Hermione hated that, when Ginny acted like one of those gossipy girls. Ginny was more on a...mature level. 

"You're such an actress, Gin." Hermione smiled. Ginny laughed.

"It's my profession; you know it."

"Yes, I do. Oh, could you hand me that book over there?" Hermione pointed, smiling, to a big navy book with gold lettering. The title read, "TRANSFIGURATION", in plain text. Ginny rose her eyebrows.

"I bet that one's good," she said as she picked it up. But as she handed it to Hermione with one hand, it slipped, being slightly heavy, and fell to the floor. A series of many pieces of parchment scattered on the floor. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Ginny and Hermione rose to get them, Hermione more intent on the fact that some of them might be pages. 

"It's all right," Hermione said as her and Ginny gathered all of the papers. Ginny laughed as Hermione set them on the table.

"I swear, I was blonde as a child..." Hermione scoffed.

"Nothing like that!" They both giggled. Hermione glanced at the clock. "Oh, wow. Only ten minutes to dinner! I better just check this book out! Hold on a sec, Gin," Hermione said as she stuffed all of the loose papers in the book and went to check it out. Her and Ginny then ran up to the tower to drop off their things and head down to dinner.

***

Dinner was noisy and lively as Hermione and Ginny took their seats. Hermione looked across to see Ron. It was strange, but him and Hermione were actually dating. But next to Ron sat Lavender, and Hermione just felt uncomfortable. Sure, Hermione was a pretty girl; her hair was looser and the curls fell only at the ends of her hair. As well as that was a better sense of fashion (most of Ginny's clothes, though). But Lavender was extremely pretty, long, pale blonde hair and a pale complexion, mixed with blue eyes. She was the kind of pretty girl that was quiet and nice to everyone that you hated, but felt bad because she was so nice.

"Hullo Hermione!" Ron flashed a smile as he reached for some mashed potatoes. He had grown nicely, too, fairing with no freckles, bright blue eyes, and a slender, trim build to match his height of six foot, three. There was a kind of jock, popular boy thing inside of him, very different to Hermione's intelligence. 

"Hi, Hermione! How was your day?" Lavender asked politely. Hermione flashed a smile to fool a raging hippogriff. 

"It was fine, thanks," Hermione answered before she took a drink of pumpkin juice. Ginny smiled and butted into the conversation.

"So, Lavender, are you going to the big 'End of the Year Ball' for the fifth years and up?" Lavender put a hand at her chest, a smile on her face.

"Oh, of course! Last year was so much fun, even though it was kind of sad about the whole Riley Smith thing." Lavender's face turned sympathetic. Poor Riley had been one of Voldemort's victims last year. Along with her was a first year and a hippogriff of Hagrid's. Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Hermione, are you going to go?" Lavender inquired. 

"Yeah, babe, you goin'?" Ron spoke up through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Hermione stared at her plate for a moment...her empty plate. Last year she'd gone without a date (seeing that Harry was with Cho and Ron had gone with Parvati) and had ended up standing against the wall the entire time, all alone.

"Eh, I dunno. Last year was kind of boring for me."

"But Hermione, I'll be there!" Ginny whined.

"And you'll have a date, too," Ron piped, raising his eyebrows. Hermione felt a faint smile creep on her lips as even Lavender added a comment.

"It'll be fun, Hermione! Come on!" Hermione shrugged.

"I suppose," Hermione smiled faintly as everyone agreed. Dinner was pleasant enough for that day.

***

Hermione's hair was taken back into a loose bun as she flipped another page, sighing. She rubbed her temples and set back to work, taking more notes. But she stopped as a loose paper hung out of the side of the book, a couple pages back. She pulled it out and unfolded it carefully, for it was cracked and looked about to disintegrate. She knitted her brows as she looked the writing over. Though the paper seemed old, the ink was fresh and bright; but the language it was written in was entirely unreadable. She decided to bother with it when her essay was finished and slipped it into her notes, returning to her work, being the bookworm that she was.

Meanwhile, Harry and Cho had decided that they should come inside, due to a slight cool draft that had engulfed Hogwarts that night. They walked slowly, silently, hand-in-hand, to the Ravenclaw Den. Harry stopped a bit away from the tapestry that moved aside with the password to the Den. He held her hand, still, and she looked back as she had tried to continue on. A slight sense of foreboding had filled Harry's stomach since she had appeared earlier. 

"Cho....I feel like I'm never going to see you again," he confessed. Cho smiled and placed a hand on his cheek.

"I'll be here tomorrow, Harry. I'm not going anywhere." Harry knew that she had not caught on. He smiled faintly, to throw her suspicions and pressed his lips to hers, wrapping his arms around her. She followed suit, smiling as he released her. "Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight..." Harry desperately wanted to tell her that he loved her... Those words had not been passed between them yet and he felt the strongest need to tell her. But his lips remained sealed as he walked away.

***

It was cool that night, very chilling the wind was. He sat in the window seat in the far corner of the Slytherin Common Room. It had to have been extremely late, around three in the morning, but he found that he couldn't sleep. Something milled in the chamber of his stomach and he found that he was almost nervous. He never got nervous. He was very suave, cool and collected; he was Draco Malfoy, confident and hard; sarcastic. 

Tonight, he rested in his sanctuary mind, though, thinking about what could've possibly riled his stomach up like this. The window was cracked slightly, the cool air stinging his bare face and slender chest, but he was seemingly oblivious. He was cold to another's touch and that's the way that he preffered it. 

But perhaps his stomach was upset? He didn't feel ill; more along the lines of feeling something bad was about to happen. He could not put a finger to it, though, what it might be or what it could even be related with. But then again, he was always one to sense things that weren't totally obvious to the normal person. His platinum hair was glowing under the moon's bright light, as was his skin. His eyes were a pale gray. Very plain and hard; he was not one for affection, but he did happen to be an excellent actor. He did weild a girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson, although he felt nothing for her. The best looking guy in the school he figured he was, next to Potter. He was looking for someone else to spice up his side, though. Pansy just wasn't enough. Too clingy and boring; not nearly pretty enough. 

But that was not his main concern. It still all rendered back to his stomach and the uppity feeling that even seemed to swirl in his mind. The outside word was covered in a light frost that had begun to fall earlier in the light, and it was still coming down. The forest was dark and malicious, and Draco's thoughts turned to everything he'd gone through with his family recently. Draco no longer showed up for breakfast, due to excessive mailing from his father, all persuasions. He was unsure of the choice to let himself in on the master plan that his father had told him very little of. But, all the same, Draco knew of Potter's strength and did not want to end up dead in this little mission. 

Little did Draco know, but this 'little mission' would lead him out to sea, almost drowning him.

***

Hermione awoke to a shrill voice yelling her name. She was slumped over on her books, in her clothes, a quill not far from her limp hands. She sat up, wincing and rubbing her lower back slightly. But there was that scream again.

"_Hermione!_" Ginny threw the curtains on her four-poster back and trampled all of her books as she crawled into the bed. Hermione snatched most of her papers out of the way, not even aware of what time it was. It must've been late, very late. The other girls were moaning and Parvati Patil's light had flipped on. Hermione glared at Ginny and motioned for her to cease her endless babbling. Ginny shut her mouth and scrambled against the head of Hermione's bed. She looked frightened out of her mind. Hermione held her questions until the other girls had gone back to sleep and Parvati's light was out again. She glanced at the clock. _3:26 AM_. 

"What are you _doing?_ Do you have any idea that it is three-thirty in the _morning!_" Hermione scolded. Ginny's lips quivered slightly as she tried to speak.

"H-Hermione... He - He was th-there! In m-my d-dorm!" Hermione furrowed her brows relaxed a little, the anger leaving her expression.

"Who? Who was in your dorm?" Ginny looked as if she spoke too loudly he'd come into their dorm, too. She closed her eyes as she said his name, trembling.

"_Voldemort!_" Hermione's eyes widened and the door to her dorms flew open, a large figure in black, hissing, ran into the room, making terrible noises. Ginny screamed again, as did Hermione. The other girls seemed to wake up and then everyone was screaming. Ginny and Hermione leapt out of their bed, as the figure stopped it's running to hiss ferociously into their faces. They bolted down the hallways, the rug burning their feet slightly. The bound down the stairs, skipping three steps at a time, before they streamed out of the portrait hole, screaming all the while.

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***

"Would you like to explain, not only us, but to the entire school why you decided to scream and run down the hallways like wild geese at three thirty this morning?" Professor McGonagall's hard voice asked a sullen Hermione and Ginny, who stood in front of the entire school, Ginny in her nightgown and Hermione in her dirty, rumpled clothing from last night. They both shot glares at Ron, Seamus, and Dean. They had played a trick. Now, Hermione and Ginny were being addressed in front of the entire school. 

"With all due respect, professor, we can explain," Ginny said quietly. Quite a few people were snickering, including Ron, Seamus, and Dean. But a few people looked confused, and another few glared at the jokers. 

"You had better be able to explain! Now you're excused. Meet me after classes have ended, there's not time for this right now." Professor McGonagall dismissed them with wave of her hand then and they hurried out into the Entrance Hall.

"I can't believe they would do that! Can you? How embarrassing! Even some of the teachers were laughing! I'm going to kill my brother and his friends! How could they do that to us? They're bastards! Uugh!" All the time that Ginny had been fuming and babbling, Hermione's lips had quivered and she had sniveled. Ginny stopped her ongoing ramble and patted Hermione's shoulder. "Oh, it's okay!"

"Everybody was laughing!" Hermione's voice lapsed into tears and she brushed feverently at her hair and face, trying to keep the fact that she was crying inconspicuous. Ginny and Hermione turned to walk up to their dorms. . . . 

Meanwhile, Malfoy was on his way down to the Great Hall, having missed the humorous humiliation of the two Gryffindors. His gait was quick, to the point, and his eyes were narrowed, in his always-painted shield. The corridors were quiet on the spring day, the sunlight that poured through the windows reminding a normal person of gardens full of pretty pansies and lovely daises. Draco wished the school would buy blinds.

He was about to descend the stairs to the Entrance Hall, but voices halted him. He drew into the shadows just before the voices appeared in form before him. Hermione Granger and the Weasley girl. It looked as if Granger were in tears; she was. The Weasley girl was comforting her. And he stepped out of the shadows, looking for a good quarrel before he went down to breakfast.

"Oh, what is Granger crying about now? Did Weasel dump her?" Ginny shot him a glare to kill a ferret, the slits of blue in her eyes piercing his gray ones. Hermione had turned a slightly annoyed look on him. 

"It's none of your business, Malfoy, but it has nothing to do with Ron!" Hermione said as she began to walk away. Ginny kept her glare as she followed Hermione, looking over her shoulder at the smirking boy.

"My, my, such harsh words. I think I'm bleeding! Granger, future medi-nurse, help me!" His sarcasm sent Ginny right back in his direction, landing a good, sharp hand on his face. A very blunt statement followed:

"Fuck off, Malfoy!" Draco was so surprised that he just stood there a second while Ginny returned to Hermione, who still stood a few feet off. As they began walking again, he was tempted to let her know that no one ever gets away with hitting a Malfoy. But he restrained his anger and turned to go down to his now sour breakfast; he would get the Weasley girl back before long.

***

"Hermione, it was just a _joke!_"

"Ron, you don't understand! I've never _ever_ gotten in so much trouble in my life! A week's worth of detention? Half with Snape, half with McGonagall? I've never had that many detentions in my life! _Ever!_" Ron glared at Hermione, who stood, outraged, her arms held out elaborately as she motioned dramatically with her hands. He stood straight with his arms crossed.

"You need to lighten up! All I ever hear about is 'did you do your homework?', 'is that essay finished yet?', 'oh, did you remember to check out those books?'! Hermione, you have to stop! I want a girlfriend that cares about _me!_ Not my grades!" Hermione's eyes widened. Was she really that uptight about his grades? She sighed shakily, shaking her head some.

"Far be it from me to stop you from failing your sixth year at Hogwarts!" She turned and stalked out of the empty common room. She had wasted the first half of her lunch arguing with her blind boyfriend, and now she was just going to wander. She felt that his grades were important, and with her as a girlfriend, he should be doing fine. Yet, he was failing half of his classes with D's in all the others. She tried; she really tried, but he just wouldn't apply himself. She wondered if this whole ordeal would deem them broken up. She hadn't wanted to go to that Ball at the end of the year, anyway!

But from stalking out of the tower so quickly and blinded by her anger, she'd smashed right into a certain someone who'd come around a corner. A certain, very blonde, very handsome Slytherin. A certain, very cruel Slytherin, that was. 

"Watch where you're wasting space at, Granger!" Malfoy's voice broke her concentration. She was about to just snap and cry. She was so sick of those rude remarks out of him! Twice in one day? She said nothing. "Get out of the way, I'm walking here! Granger? Granger? Mudblood!" She hauled off and shoved him back against the wall of the corridor, the picture just above his head of a woman jumping from her frame to the next, looking on with curiously frightened eyes.

"Damnit, shut the fuck up and leave me the fuck alone!" Hermione'd never used language so vulgar before! She was ashamed of herself, of the way she'd treated Ron; of the way she'd failed Ron. And now she was ashamed of loosing her temper on the unsuspecting Slytherin. She hesitated, his plain gray eyes watching her with surprise. "I – I mean... I'm sorry! I'm just... I just... I..." She took a step away from him, her lips trembling. Her hands shook as she placed one of them over her heart and the other lightly against her lips. She shook her head, blinking furiously at the tears. Draco was simply amazed. Was Granger having a breakdown? What was he supposed to do?

"Granger... Should I leave?" Hermione looked up at him with fathomless chocolate eyes, pain stitching the outer layer of them. She shook her head, no; she didn't want to be alone right now. And if she had to cry on Draco Malfoy's shoulder, so be it. She took so many steps backwards that she ended up bumping into the wall opposite the one she'd shoved Malfoy against. She slid down to let her knees draw up. There were so many things that she hadn't told anyone, not Ron, not Harry, not Ginny, no one. Her father had had to take off a lot of work to help her mother... her mother who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, leaving her family on a very tight budget. She'd never been too close to her father, consoling everything in her mother. Her mother knew about the potential crush she'd always had on Harry, the way she always let Ron cheat off of her papers, even the depression Hermione'd hoarded from the rest of the world for so long. And now, she'd loose her best friend in the world.

"Malfoy, she's dying!" Hermione's voice wasn't very clear, loud, but not too loud, but helpless. And Draco felt sorry for her; he felt it wrong to ask who; she probably didn't want to have to repeat it. It seemed she'd struggled getting that out. Obviously, she hadn't told anyone except him. He moved slowly closer to her, nervous, unsure, like he'd been the night before. His stomach was wildly fluttering as he knelt down beside her, taking her same position. He, hesitantly, slipped an arm around her shoulders, and let her lean on him as she cried lightly. "She's dying, and there's nothing I can do!" He felt very stiff underneath her, never having done this, with anyone, ever before. She was something, though this seemed unusual, that Malfoy had always counted on. Hermione Granger was a bookworm know-it-all that was always looking out for her trio of friends, always having a smile on her face and a kind word to offer; she was a strong, stable point in his life, one of the few things he knew would always be the same. And now, another of the things he thought stable in his life had gone haywire; for Hermione Granger was having a nervous breakdown. 

***

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